The Science Fiction World of Xueba

Mars Day 1. (That is, a solar day on Mars, which is equivalent to 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35.24409 seconds, and is only 2.7% longer than Earth)

As soon as he woke up, Pang Xuelin and Mark Watney sat together again.

"Wattney, I think we need to plan our next job and life!"

Perhaps because Pang Xuelin was too calm, Mark Watney looked much better, and his mood was not as desperate as it was at the beginning!

Mark Watney said: "It is true, no matter what, Pang, we have to find a way to live!"

Pang Xuelin said: "We are now acting separately. You are responsible for inventorying the materials in the cabin. I will take a quick EVA (Extra-activity extra-vehicle activity). The EVA spacesuit is generally used for four hours, so one EVA activity is equivalent to three to four Hours), check the material loss outside the cabin, and see if you can retrieve the butterfly satellite communication antenna blown away by the sandstorm! "

Mark Watney nodded: "Okay!"

Uh ...

After more than three hours, Pang Xuelin returned to the habitat a bit tired, and took off the heavy EVA spacesuit helmet.

Mark Watney came out of the supplies cabin and looked at Pang Xuelin with some hope:

"Pang, did you get the satellite antenna back?"

If the satellite antenna can be recovered, it is expected to resume communication with the earth, which is the premise of whether the two can return to the earth alive.

Xi Pang Xuelin shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I searched for three kilometers around and found nothing!"

The expression on Mark Watney's face could not help but freeze.

呢 "How about you, how is the inventory in the cabin?"

"I probably figured it out. Our original Mars surface mission lasted for thirty-one days. In order to prevent accidents, we prepared 56 days of food. The previous eight people consumed six days. Fifty days, only two of us are now enough to support us for two hundred days. "

"This is good news!"

Xi Pang Xuelin laughed.

Wotney continued: "We also have nine space suits, one in-flight space suit for launch and landing, and eight EVA space suits."

Xun Pang Xuelin nodded. They originally had eight people. Each of them had two sets of spacesuits, one in-flight spacesuit and one EVA spacesuit.

EVA spacesuit is relatively bulky and sturdy, suitable for surface operation outside the cabin. Previously, six people in the Ares III mission boarded the MAV to return to the Hermes in Mars orbit and wore six sets of spacesuits. Watney's own set was punctured by the antenna, so there are still left Nine sets.

Watney paused and continued: "I also checked the oxygenator. The oxygenator is in good working condition, but if there is a problem with the oxygenator, we have only one short-term spare part. This spare part It can only be used for emergency purposes, because it is similar to the carbon dioxide filter on the EVA spacesuit. It cannot directly decompose carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, and can only absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale in the cabin. And the upper limit of this component is only five days. It will enter an irreversible saturation state, but now there are only two of us, so its upper limit should be twenty days. We better pray that the oxygenator will not go wrong, otherwise our lives will end in twenty days. "

"The water circulation device works well. Even if we exhale half a liter of water vapor every day, the air filtration system in the habitat can also recover this water vapor. The EVA spacesuit also has a certain water vapor recovery capacity, and the reserve water in the habitat has reached 500. As long as there is no problem with the water circulation system, we don't have to worry about the lack of water. The only problem is that there are no spare parts for the water circulation system, so we pray that this thing will not be a problem! "

"In addition, we have enough medicines, and the dose of morphine is enough to let us die without pain at the last moment. We also have a lot of big bottles of multivitamins and a thermostat of bread worms. These two things can help us Provide rich protein and vitamins to ensure our nutritional balance on Mars. In addition, we also have a lot of crop seeds, including potatoes, corn, wheat, cabbage, tomato, etc., and some mushroom spores. "

"Now, the only trouble is the carbon dioxide absorber of our outer spacesuit. This thing is irreversible. We use it one time at a time. We landed on Mars this time and carried a total of 800. Twenty-five have been used so far. There are 775, if we calculate by time, we have 3,100 hours of outdoor work. What about you, have you found out, what about the loss of our extra-vehicle equipment? "

Pang Xuelin said, "Our habitat is basically intact, and the three main cabins, the living cabin, the material cabin, and the energy cabin are all very complete. After the Mars lift-off vehicle (MAV) took off, some bases were left, including the landing gear. , Fuel storage tanks and supply pipelines, fuel storage tanks also contain some fuel. In addition, our Mars landing vehicle (MDV, equivalent to a landing capsule, mainly used for personnel landing, during landing, the main and auxiliary parachutes opened one after another, close to At three meters above the surface, the rocket engine at the bottom of the MDV was activated, buffering the impact force during landing) and was mostly buried in the sand. The soft landing nozzle was completely damaged, but the main and auxiliary parachute were intact and we should be able to recycle it. "

"The two rover vehicles are in good condition, half-buried in the sand. I have cleared them out, and I drove one of them around our camp. We originally set up four weather stations one kilometer around the camp. Two of the observation stations disappeared during the sandstorm, and I recovered two. Most of the solar panels around the camp were buried in the sand and were in a state of failure, and I also cleared them out. In addition, our nickel The status of the hydrogen battery is also good. Under normal use, it can reach the limit of 5,000 charge and discharge. "

"The biggest problem now is that we don't have a satellite communication antenna. I checked our remaining communication array. Without the antenna, there is basically no possibility of repair!"

Watney frowned. "Is there a way to put together an antenna with aluminum foil or some torn copper around our base?"

Xi Pang Xuelin shook her head and smiled bitterly: "You think too much. The deep space communication between Mars and Earth is not so simple. Even if I can do it, I can use it as a walkie-talkie at most."

Sitting in a chair, Watney said, "Communication is the most important thing. We must find a way to restore communication with the earth. In addition, if there is no cancellation of the subsequent Ares plan on the earth because of our death, then four years later, The Ares 4 spacecraft will land in the Schiaparelli impact crater, about 3200 kilometers from the Asidalya plain where we are now. It is impossible to reach there by our own strength. If we can In connection with the earth, we may hope for rescue. "

The problem of establishing communication is actually pang Xuelin's bottom line.

A hundred kilometers away from their camp, there was a Mars rover "Mars Pathfinder" launched in 1996.

In the movie, Mark Watney rediscovered the Mars rover and established contact with the earth.

But now, this guy obviously hasn't thought of this section.

Pang Xuelin said: "Wotney, I will come up with a solution to the problem of communication. Now the most important thing is food. Our food can only support two hundred days. Even if we try to save, we can only support one year at most. It will take four years to arrive, and the remaining three years, we have to find a way to grow our own food. You are our botanist, this is up to you! "

Watney nodded: "We need at least three years of food, 1095 Earth days, which is equivalent to 1067 Mars days. We have sufficient vitamins to ensure that the bread worms and some of the space proteins we store can provide the only shortage. The most calories of our seeds are potatoes, which contain 810 calories per kilogram of potatoes, but according to our height and weight, even if you are hungry every day, you have to consume 1500 calories, that is, almost four per day Kilograms of potatoes, about 1.5 tons of potatoes a year. The yield per potato is 1.5 tons. Our material cabin is about 100 square meters, even if all the potatoes are used to grow potatoes ~ www.readwn.com ~ Yield I'm afraid it's only 250 kilograms, which is enough for us to eat for 90 days. "

Pang Xuelin said: "Wotney, you forgot that because of the climate in many places on the planet, potatoes can only be grown one season a year, but we can provide a constant temperature and humidity environment here, and we can even harvest three to four seasons a year. In addition, the potato vines can be used to feed breadworms, which can also be a great source of our calories. "

Watney couldn't help his eyes widening. In this way, although there is still a gap between the expected output of 1.5 tons per year, it can barely guarantee that the two will be hungry.

But then Watney frowned again: "If we plant, we need soil. We need at least 40 liters of water per cubic meter of soil, and a planting area of ​​100 square meters requires almost 20 cubic meters of soil. Equivalent to 800 liters of water, where does our water come from? There are only 500 liters of water in the water circulation system, and we have to leave at least 200 liters, so where do we get the remaining 500 liters? "

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "The problem of water can be solved. As long as we provide electricity at the fuel station under the MAV take-off base, it can produce carbon dioxide for us at the rate of two liters per hour. We can collect this carbon dioxide and then Oxygen is used to make oxygen. As for the hydrogen problem, do you remember our teammate Friedrich? When we landed on the MDV, his operation was very beautiful, leaving us with at least hundreds of liters of fuel. Those connected Ammonia can be broken down into hydrogen and nitrogen, and then we collect the hydrogen and burn it with oxygen, can we make water? "

Wotney looked at Pang Xuelin and laughed: "Pang, you are really a genius! If you can really do what you said, we might really live until the day when Ares 4 reaches Mars!"